NEW UNIFORMS The Devil Rays Know How To Be Overdramatic

The time is almost here when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will announce to the world what we already know. And boy, you would have thought the Rays were set to announce the acquisition of Alex Rodriguez, Johan Santana, Mariano Rivera and the 2008 World Series.

New uniforms. New colors. New logo. New name. Everything is new and Tampa Bay has an All-Star weekend planned to unveil their changes to the public…The festivities kick off on Thursday afternoon in downtown St. Petersburg’s Straub Park, in a free night of excitement for fans of all ages. At 4 p.m. ET the interactive activities kick off the evening…At 5:30 p.m., manager Joe Maddon, Hall of Famer Wade Boggs and former Ray Fred McGriff will hit the catwalk to model the Rays’ new uniforms, logos and colors…Next is a special treat for any baseball fan, but especially those of classic baseball movies. At 6:30 p.m., Kevin Costner and his band, Modern West, will take the stage for a rock-and-roll concert…Thursday evening will conclude with an 8 p.m. fireworks show, but that’s only Day 1 of the entertainment.

That’s right folks. That is just day 1…with fireworks and Kevin Costner. Day 2 is even more jam-packed with F.U.N., including autograph sessions (you won’t want to miss Al Reyes and Dan Wheeler at Southgate Plaza), a picnic and free backrubs from Joe Maddon*.

We like to give the Red Sox and their Nation a lot of crap around these parts for being over-the-top and throwing their greatness in our faces all the time, but when they won their second title in four years, all they scheduled was a parade on some Duck Boats. As far as we know, the only fireworks were in Jonathon Papplebon’s pants.

We are still not sure if we are going to make it out for the festivities. We have a Kevin Costner Shitty Movie Marathon scheduled for those two days, including Water World and The Postman.

*Might have just been a dream we had last night.

Rays giving fans glimpse of new image [Devil Rays]
The New Tampa Bay Rays Uniforms [Rays Index]
Now appearing…[tampabay.com]

THE HANGOVERDevil Rays To Play "Home" Games At Champion Field. Queue The Soiled Underwear Jokes

Team USA 3, Peo Saguaros 0.
Evan Longoria was 0-3 and is now hitting .308 in the Arizona Fall League. Justin Ruggiano did not play. On Wednesday, Longoria went 2-4 with 2 doubles and 2 runs scored in Team USA’s 5-3 win over Surprise. Ruggiano went 1-4 with a triple and an RBI.

Scottsdale 6, Surprise 0.
Mike Prochaska started and pitched 5 shutout innings, allowing only 2 hits and 1 walk with 3 strikeouts. Evan Meek and Calvin Medlock each pitched an inning of relief striking out a combined 3 batters and allowing 2 hits. Each pitcher threw a wild pitch.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Devil Rays are currently in negotiations with Disney to play a a series at Disney’s Wild World of Sports for the second consecutive season. If a deal can be reached, the games will be played in the newly named Champion Stadium after a deal was reached with Hanes clothing. The Devil Rays playing home games in “Champion” Stadium? There is no way this ends well in the Blogosphere. [Orlando Sentinel]
• Jim Hickeywill be back in 2008 as the Rays pitching coach. [TBO]
• MLB4U has a list of all the free agents that the Devil Rays will not be pursuing this off-season. [MLB4U]
• Does Matt Silverman have a new girlfriend? Nadya seems to think so. No details though. Damn it. [AOL Journals]
• ArmchairGM takes a look at Evan Longoria. [ArmchairGM]
• When we first read that Rays announcers Dewayne Staats, Joe Magrane and Todd Kalas were all up for the Frick Award we were taken back a bit. The award is presented annually during the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and is given to a broadcaster that makes major contributions to baseball. We were a bit surprised. They are decent, but never have we thought that they added very much to a game. Not bad. Not great…Then we read the fine print and realized that the only reason they are “up for the award” is because every announce with 10 years experience is up for the award. A final list of 10 candidates will be announced in December. We are still wondering why Bill Chastain decided that this deserved its own piece on DevilRays.com. [DevilRays.com]
• Wanna meet Kevin Costner? Here is your chance. If we win, we are showing up dressed like his character from “The Postman”. [DevilRays.com]
• Tampa Bay Sports Fanatic takes a look at how all the Rays farmhands are performing in the Arizona Fall League. [Tampa Bay Sports Fanatic]